Pfizer, Vertex Execs Are Victims of Facebook Faker; Forbes, WSJ Also Targeted

Someone is impersonating prominent members of the pharma and biotech world on Facebook, including Vertex Pharmaceuticals chief executive Joshua Boger, a chief science officer at Pfizer and Forbes drug writer Matt Herper. The latter wrote a half-amusing, half-disturbing story for Forbes about how he was duped by the Facebook faker, friending “Rick Weiss,” the former Washington Post science writer, only to later find out that the real Weiss had not sent him a friend request.

Herper even conversed with “Rick Weiss” about a YouTube video they had both seen, and remained convinced he was friends with the real Weiss until he called the Post writer on the phone to check. The faker had somehow friended the real victims, copied their profiles, and then set themselves up with new Facebook accounts under their victim’s identity — thus the fake profiles looked real.

That’s the amusing part. Here’s where it gets disturbing:

This pretender was one of 100 impersonators of scientists, journalists and science policy wonks uncovered by Lucas Laursen, a reporter at Nature, the scientific journal. Most of the people who were copied are somehow linked to the biotech industry, and many are linked to the especially controversial field of embryonic stem cell research. Ruth McKernan, chief scientific officer of Pfizer’s regenerative medicine unit is on the list; so was University of Wisconsin bioethicist Alta Charo, whose thinking about stem cells has been hugely influential.

Herper wasn’t “Rick Weiss’s” only victim; the faker had also friended a Wall Street Journal reporter, a lawyer and a public relations executive.

Facebook has since killed off “Rick Weiss” but the bio-faker’s other identities remain out there. Facebook declined to comment for Herper’s piece.

Image: A digital representation of the real Herper.